Category: Nature
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Tresco Abbey gardens
People have been living on the island of Tresco, in the Scilly Islands, for over 5000 years, and visiting these islands by boats from the Cornish mainland as long ago as 6000/7000 BC. The islands would have looked very different back then, covered in oak, ash and elder trees, with roe deer and wild boar…
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The pure joy of simple pleasures
This blog was inspired by seeing some small children enjoying themselves by sitting on a seat. I had just walked past this comfortable looking bench (outside a pizza shop), thinking it would be nice to sit down, but a sensible adult voice in my head said: “that seat is reserved for customers”. But that didn’t…
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Journey to the Antarctic: Bird Island (1982)
Bird Island lies off the north-west tip of South Georgia, (Lat. 54°0’0″S, Long. 38°2’59″W) (below). There is a small research station – Bird Island Research Station – which is run by the British Antarctic Survey, and is ideally suited – being right in the middle of a huge fur seal colony! – to study the amazing…
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Chasing leopards by the falls!
It was a very hot day when I visited Doi Inthanon, Thailand’s highest mountain (at 2565 metres or 8415 feet), in early May this year. Temperatures in Chiang Mai city had reached 40 deg C the day before, but it was much cooler up the mountain. There are large tracts of different types of forest…
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A walk in the countryside on 1st April
Spring has come early this year. The world is warming up; 2016 was the warmest year since record-keeping began (in 1880). (1) Perhaps 2017 will be even warmer? The countryside in Bedfordshire is waking up; shaking itself free of winter’s cloak and putting on a new dress of green leaves and spring flowers! Sprays of…
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Travelling with a Mermaid
I recently had the pleasure of cruising from Bali to Flores – via the Komodo National Park – aboard the very well-appointed little ship, Mermaid I (1). This liveaboard dive vessel is usually chartered by divers to explore the water of Komodo and Raja Ampat in Indonesia, but our trip had a different mission: we…
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Kaziranga National Park
Kaziranga National Park covers an area of 430 sq kms along the southern bank of the river Brahmaputra, in the province of Assam, in NE India. The park is famous for having the largest remaining population of the Great Indian one horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis). These magnificent mammals are amongst the largest rhinos in the world,…
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Airport frogs
If you find yourself passing through La Coruña airport in northern Spain any-time, make sure you have a look at the frogs. This small airport is located in the suburbs of La Coruña – also called A Coruña in Spaanish – and is one of a number of gateways into the province of Galicia. A far cry…
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